Just days after the Blurred Lines ruling forced Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke to pay out millions of dollars in damages to the estate of Marvin Gaye, another US musician has been forced to cough up money for using music without permissions.
Jay Z has agreed to pay half of all the royalties accrued by his song Versus to Swiss jazz star Bruno Spoerri.
Jay Z has initially refuted claims that his 2013 song had copied the instrumental music from the 1978 song Lilith – on the Way, but after an 18-month legal battle, Spoerri’s claim has been recognised and Jay Z will pay him royalties.
The Basel-based newspaper TagesWoche reports that Jay Z, a 45-year-old rapper, producer and the husband of Beyoncé, finally admitted to taking Spoerri’s music without attribution in recent months.
Spoerri says that he rejected Jay Z’s first offer to settle the legal dispute, claiming that the $25,000 (€23,600) offer was too low, but that he will now receive half of the royalties instead.
For him, it was a matter of principle.
“I have given away my music for free in the past, but not to commercially-oriented artists like Jay Z,” he said.
You can listen to both Versus and Lilith – on the Way below:
